Survival in WWII, 1933–1944 · Alfred Moritz (alias Mauricet)

The Palatinate

he Palatinate has, since time immemorial, been an area of conflict between France and Germania; warfare in the 1600s depopulated the region; with peace, the area was peopled by new arrivals, including a Jew, Moses.

He settled in Becherbach, near Kirn on the Nahe River, half-way between Bingen on the Rhine and the city of Trier, the "Augusta Treverorum" of the Roman Empire.

In this small Badian Margravate (a county on the "marches"—the border) to which Becherbach then belonged, Jews were subjected to settlement quotas and a yearly tax—the "Schutzgeld"—for the privilege of residence and of trading, for a limited renewable period, but non-transferable to offspring, who often had to seek an abode elsewhere.